Romney Claims Win Vowing End to Obama ‘Disappointments’

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis -
Apr 25, 2012

Mitt Romney has declared himself
the Republican presidential nominee and launched his general-
election campaign against President Barack Obama, seeking to
turn the president’s own promises against him and capitalize on
voters’ disaffection with the economy.

The day after Romney used a five-state primary sweep to
make clear he views the Republican race over, the party chairman
labeled him the “presumptive nominee” and his closest
remaining competitor in accruing delegates, Newt Gingrich, moved
toward dropping his bid.

Priebus also said he is working to ensure the party and
Romney’s campaign are “fully synchronized” into a “unified
team to defeat Barack Obama.”

Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, planned to end his
candidacy next week and back Romney, according to a person
familiar with his intentions.

Useful Future

“He’s talking to Governor Romney and the Republican
National Committee about how he might be useful in the future,”
said Gingrich adviser Bob Walker, a former U.S. representative
from Pennsylvania.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, used words
akin to a nomination acceptance speech as he spoke to supporters
at a hotel in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, last night.

“After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more
than a few long nights, I can say with confidence -- and
gratitude -- that you have given me a great honor and solemn
responsibility,” he said.

He vowed to use his business experience to “lead us out of
this stagnant Obama economy and into a job-creating recovery,”
and declared “the beginning of the end of the disappointments
of the Obama years.”

With his victories in the Connecticut, Delaware, New York,
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island primaries yesterday, Romney is
moving to a new phase of his campaign in which he’s working to
reintroduce himself to voters and begin a targeted one-on-one
race against Obama, contrasting his economic plans with what he
called the president’s “failed ” record.

Campaign Themes

Romney borrowed Obama’s own 2008 presidential campaign
themes of hope and possibility in his comment last night, trying
to turn them against the president by reminding voters of dashed
expectations.

Obama “dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping
promises of hope and change,” he said, referencing the backdrop
of the president’s nomination acceptance speech at the 2008
Democratic convention in Denver.

“But after we came down to earth, after the celebration
and parades, what do we have to show for 3 1/2 years of
President Obama?” Romney asked in a speech delivered in the
state where he kicked off his campaign last June and scored his
first primary victory on Jan. 10.

‘Campaign of Diversion’

“Because he has failed, he will run a campaign of
diversions, distractions and distortions,” Romney said of
Obama, adding that the tactic would fail.

“It’s still about the economy, and we’re not stupid,” he
said, updating the line Democrat Bill Clinton’s campaign used in
his successful 1992 challenge to unseat George H.W. Bush.

Romney also posed a series of questions recalling former
President Ronald Reagan’s speech shortly before he won the 1980
election, in which he asked voters deciding whether to keep
Democrat Jimmy Carter in the White House: “Are you better off
than you were four years ago?”

Obama’s re-election campaign defended the president’s
economic record, calling Romney’s speech full of “distortions”
and arguing that Obama has improved an economy ruined before his
inauguration.

Romney is “proposing the same economic policies that got
us into the economic crisis in the first place,” Ben LaBolt, an
Obama campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

‘Etch-A-Sketch Away’

Democrats are stepping up their criticism of Romney in
efforts to deny him the chance to put the divisive Republican
primary behind him, spotlighting his calls to end federal
funding for Planned Parenthood, his support for a Republican-
authored measure to allow employers to deny health insurance
coverage for contraceptives and support for steep spending and
tax cuts.

New Hampshire voters “will see through Mitt Romney’s
return to New Hampshire for what it is -- an attempt to Etch-A-
Sketch away his extreme positions on women’s rights, equal pay
and tax breaks for millionaires at the expense of the middle
class,” Pete Kavanaugh, Obama’s New Hampshire director, said in
a memo circulated to reporters.

Romney was seeking to counter such criticism and appeal to
independent and swing voters, including groups such as women,
Hispanics and young people who polls have shown hold a dim view
of him going into a matchup against Obama.

Uniting Americans

“Tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every
American who knows in their heart that we can do better,”
Romney said.

He has already begun to shift his rhetoric and in some
cases his positions with an eye toward appealing to a wider
swath of voters and repairing his image with those alienated by
the Republican primary. He softened his tone on student aid and
illegal immigrants as he campaigned this week in Pennsylvania
with Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a leading potential vice
presidential prospect.

Romney, who has been criticized for seeming aloof, used his
New Hampshire speech to cast himself as open-minded and humble,
telling voters he wants “to hear what’s on your mind, hear
about your concerns, and I want to learn about your families. I
want to know what you think we can do to make this country
better, and what you expect from your next president.”

Wealth Issue

Romney, a co-founder of Bain Capital LLC who has estimated
his net worth to be as much as $250 million, also put a positive
spin on his wealth, which rivals in both parties have used to
paint him as out of touch with ordinary Americans.

“You may have heard that I was successful in business;
yep, that rumor’s true,” he said to laughter and cheers from
his audience. “But you might not have heard that I became
successful by helping start a business that grew from 10 people
to hundreds of people.”

Romney’s victories brought his delegate haul to at least
844, according to the Associated Press, with 1,144 needed for
the nomination. Gingrich has 137 delegates and Texas Congressman
Ron Paul 79 in the AP tally.

While Romney hasn’t yet gained a direct endorsement from
Rick Santorum -- who after emerging as his main Republican rival
exited the race April 10 -- the former Pennsylvania senator said
he was arranging a private meeting with him in the next week or
two.

“It’s very clear that he’s going to be the Republican
nominee and I’m going to be for the Republican nominee,”
Santorum said in an interview on CNN, adding that his remarks
were not intended as a formal endorsement.